CA School District Approves “In God We Trust” Posters in Every School
The following are excerpts from an November 7, 2007 article appearing in the Los Angeles Times.
“Board puts faith in ‘In God We Trust’”
By Steve Chawkins, Los Angeles Times – November 7, 2007After months of contentious debate, a Bakersfield school district has voted to display the phrase “In God We Trust” on the walls of more than 2,300 classrooms, school libraries, administrative offices and the board’s meeting room.
Adopted by Congress as the U.S. motto in 1956, the words will be highlighted in a poster along with portions of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the original national motto: e pluribus unum, Latin for “from many, one.”
“We’re not going to accept the agenda of some radical leftists who want to expunge God from public dialogue,” Chad Vegas, an evangelical pastor who sits on the board of the Kern High School District, said in an interview Tuesday. “Instead, we’re teaching our citizens — including our children — that the very foundation of government is that God gave them unalienable rights that cannot be usurped by the will of the majority or anyone else.”
The board’s action was seen by opponents as part of a broader effort to infuse local schools with religious doctrine.
…
[School board member Brian] Batey described the outcome of the debate as “a victory for patriotism and supporting education.”
“How could you oppose having the nation’s motto on public schools — especially when it’s placed in an educational and historic context?” he asked.
In fancy script simulating the Constitution and other documents of the era, the poster explains that the selection of the motto during the Cold War “was partly motivated by the desire to make a distinction between communism, which promotes atheism (no beliefs), and Western capitalistic democracies (USA), which were for the most part Christian.”
…
Decisions in several courts have upheld the constitutionality of “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency, with judges ruling that the words do not force religion on anyone.
< end of excerpts from article >
Read the entire news article here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-trust7…
RELATED INFORMATION:
OH Requires Public Schools to Display “In God We Trust”
http://familypolicy.net/oh-p-500
Motto Posters Going Up in VA Schools
http://familypolicy.net/va-alerts-va-p-31